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News & Notes BRIEFS GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2019 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 6 Bono in the Pantry at the Beard House Bono, Sicily's largest producer of extra vir- gin olive oil, has become the new exclusive extra virgin olive oil purveyor at the James Beard House in New York's Greenwich Vil- lage. The Beard House, established in 1985, is a fine-dining venue in culinary legend James Beard's former home, that presents special dinners created by 200 visiting chefs from across the U.S. each year. It is part of the James Beard Foundation, known for its restaurant industry James Beard Awards and other programs. "We are proud to be partnering with such a prestigious institution that is all about excellence in food," said Salvatore Russo-Tiesi, General Manager of Bono USA. "A great olive oil makes the meal, and we look forward to having our Sicilian extra virgin olive oil on hand for so many excellent chefs to use in their creations." Bono, founded in 1934 in Sciacca, Sicily, an area known for its excellent olive grow- ing conditions, in the past year has made a big push into the U.S. Bono's multi-award winning olive oils, and its line of organic marmalades and olives are now available in specialty stores and leading grocery chains in all 50 states. Bono's products are avail- able at Wegmans, King's, Balducci's, Central Market, Stop & Shop, AJ's Fine Foods and Bristol Farms, among many others, and on- line at Vitacost.com and Amazon. GN Krasdale Foods Promotes Steve Silver to President Krasdale Foods, a 110-year-old, privately- owned company providing many essential services to supermarket operators, includ- ing grocery distribution, merchandising, and marketing, has elevated Steve Silver to the role of President as part of the com- pany's succession plan. Silver has been with Krasdale 37 years and, in addition to his new role, will con- tinue to serve as Chief Operating Officer and as a member of the board of directors. Over the years, he has played a major role in expanding Krasdale into the largest gro- cery distributor in New York City while also building out its vertically integrated structure. "Steve is such an important part of our company's success," said Charles Krasne, who will continue on in his role as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the board of Krasdale Foods. "He is deeply in- volved in all aspects of the business and has earned the respect of our employees, cus- tomers and partners. I know he is eager to continue to drive future growth for the company." Krasdale has grown from a New York- centric brand to a multi-state grocery ser- vicer and supplier, providing personalized counseling, and business and marketing support to multiple generations of entre- preneurs. With its headquarters in White Plains, New York, and distribution center in the Bronx, Krasdale services more than 300 independent supermarkets with many of them operating under the C-Town and Bravo banners in the Northeast and Florida, along with hundreds of smaller markets that are located in the New York area. A fully integrated grocery servicer and supplier, Krasdale is comprised of sev- eral affiliated companies including Alpha 1 Marketing, Beta II Marketing, Consoli- dated Supermarket Supply and KoolTemp Foods. GN Caper AI-Powered Shopping Carts Let Customers Skip Checkout Caper is the first artificial intelligence- powered shopping cart that, using com- puter vision, lets grocery shoppers skip checkout lines. Shoppers can simply throw items into their Caper cart, and built-in sensors identify the items and tally a virtual basket. During the shop- ping journey, Caper helps shoppers dis- cover in-store deals with its interactive screen. Once done, they can conve- niently pay on the cart and leave the store. Caper's AI-powered shopping cart is a plug-and-play solution – no installation is required and no operational restructuring is needed. Store owners can put Caper carts in their stores and enable an automated checkout experience that complements their existing business. The Caper carts are now live in two grocery chains, and have plans to roll out to 150 more in 2019. Caper is not a technology that only exists within a concept store. The current launched version of Caper's cart requires barcode scanning of each item on the cart – and it has already become a go-to technology for shoppers. Caper is leveraging the captured item image and the scanned item barcode to help train its deep learning algorithm and enable the scan-less drop-and-go ex- perience. Caper not only streamlines checkout, but it also provides an inter- face to interact with shoppers and pro- vide revenue driving opportunities for grocers with tailored recommendations designed to increase basket size. In its launched stores, Caper has been able to increase average basket size by 18 per- cent by giving customers exposure to products they may overlook or unable to find. Caper has raised about $3.5 million to date from First Round Capital, Y Combina- tor, and a number of notable angels in the grocery industry such as Nick Taranto, co- Founder of Plated, and Max Mullen, co- Founder of Instacart. GN Ahold Delhaize Names Farhan Siddiqi as Chief Digital Officer Ahold Delhaize has named Farhan Siddiqi as Chief Digital Officer and member of the Executive Committee, effective January 28, 2019. In this role, Siddiqi will drive digital transformation and innovation across Ahold Delhaize's great local brands, focus- ing on loyalty, data analytics and personal- ization. Siddiqi joins Ahold Delhaize from Mc- Donald's where he most recently served as chief digital officer and led the restaurant chain's digital transformation, including the launch of mobile commerce in 20,000 restaurants, a new mobile app and the up- grade of self-service ordering kiosks. He was also responsible for data analytics and extending customer relationship manage- ment capabilities. Prior to this, he held sev- eral key leadership positions within Bank of America, Target and General Electric, where he focused on implementing suc- cessful customer loyalty programs, digital payment solutions, and launching strategic partnerships. GN Nuro and Kroger Launch First-Ever Unmanned Delivery Service for the General Public Nuro and The Kroger Co. have launched the first- ever unmanned delivery service available to the general public. Since August, the companies have operated a self-driving grocery delivery service in Scottsdale, Arizona, with an autonomous Prius fleet accompanied by vehicle operators. The autonomous vehicles have completed nearly 1,000 deliveries to the general public. The fleet is now expanding to include Nuro's custom unmanned vehicle known as the R1. Orri Jaffa Mandarins Heading to North America The Plant Production and Marketing Board of Israel predicts that 2019 will see significant increase in exports of the Orri Jaffa mandarin to the US and Canada. The organization set goals for expanding export of its leading, easy- to-peel mandarin in response to the increased demand for high-quality, easy-peelers. The Jaffa Orri is a mandarin developed by scientists at the Israeli Volcani Research Center. This easy-to-peel mandarin retains an excellent, fresh, sweet flavor with a fleshy texture, and mouthful juiciness, while bearing virtually no seeds. It also carries a particularly long shelf life and appears later in the season compared to other easy peelers – from January into May. The American citrus market has been growing significantly in recent years and is composed largely of imports. The mandarin sub-category is the largest in the citrus category, accounting for some 40 percent of the citrus market. More than 230,000 tons of easy-to-peel mandarins are shipped into the US annually, at a total value of more than $1 billion. This is in addition to the 1 million tons produced domestically. Study: 77 Percent of Americans Would Rather Eat a Homemade Meal Online grocer Peapod's annual meal planning forecast compiled by Engine found continued and growing appreciation when it comes to a home cooked meal. In the survey, 77 percent of Americans said they would rather eat a homemade meal than go out for dinner. Resolving to spend more time in the kitchen in the New Year, 43 percent said they plan to cook more in 2019. That number is even greater for Millennials, as 59 percent of them plan to cook more. While more than three in four respondents (77 percent) prioritized cost savings, eating healthier is also important for more than half (51 percent) of respondents. The survey found that 41 percent said that cooking at home offers more quality time at home with family. Weekdays are overwhelmingly the times most likely to make a home cooked meal, with Wednesdays peaking as the most popular day to cook dinner at home (75 percent). Wednesday is also the most popular day for respondents to look to the convenience of meal kits (51 percent).

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